


she could be a morning sunrise

by tamaslin



Series: critrole femslash week 2019 [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Critical Role Femslash Week, F/F, after the events of the sunken tomb, i swear to god it's soft, vex and zahra spend a night together before the party travels on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-10 18:23:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17431136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamaslin/pseuds/tamaslin
Summary: after everything, they could all use a little rest. a little comfort.prompt: distant places





	she could be a morning sunrise

**Author's Note:**

> critrole femslash week day one prompt!
> 
> the title is altered from 'she keeps me warm' by mary lambert. bc i'm gay

She’s in the cage again. Fingers bloody. Throat raw. Outside her cage there’s a body. No light to the room yet she sees it clear in black and white. A braid come loose, feathers she knows to be blue scattered on the ground and her throat constricts. Lips that she’s never seen moments away from a smile are parted but no breath leaves them. Cold. Dark. _No. No no no._ She screams again. A memory wades through the shadows and her own voice is an echo against the walls. _Kash bring her back. Kash. Vex. Vex’ahlia._ _Please_.

Dawn has yet to stretch her arms across the sky when Zahra bolts upright in her room. It’s still dark. Dark and cold and her dream chases her into the world of the living. Chest heaves. Eyes wild. When she goes to dig her nails into the hard stone of the floor, fingers tangle in something softer. She looks down to the fabric caught on her and breath comes rushing in.

She isn’t caged. Not anymore.

Moonlight is weak through the window but when she looks up, the song of cold light eases the tension in her chest. She isn’t caged and when her eyes adjust further she realizes she isn’t alone either.

Vex’ahlia breathes against the pillow with her hair fanned out beneath her in a wild mess. Lips parted and there’s a faint noise with each exhale that pulls a trembling smile from Zahra’s chest. She stirs. Hand reaches out for the space where Zahra had been laying and when she finds the space empty, Vex’s eyes open. Blink the sleep away in the dim light of the room.

“Zahra?”

“Here, darling.” It still sounds like she was screaming. Her voice comes out scraped raw and she clears her throat. Lowers herself back to the bed. “I’m here.”

“Good.” Vex’s voice is still heavy with sleep. Her smile stops the breath in Zahra’s lungs because the memory of stillness refuses to let go of the back of her mind. The tomb beneath the lake. The scream. The sound of breath leaving a body. Vex, with her smile gone and her skin pale. Zahra blinks and the memory is replaced with lover beside her now. Beautifully alive. Her next exhale is a knot coming loose in her throat. Vex smiles and Zahra could thank every god in Vasselheim for the sight.

“I’m sure you’ve heard this many times, my love, but you are so very beautiful,” Zahra says as she settles back against the pillow beside Vex. She gets only a hum in response as the half-elf moves to  mold her body against the side of hers. One arm slides beneath her head and the other pulls at her waist.

“Once or twice.” Her head settles against Zahra’s shoulder. “I won’t object to being told it more though.”

“You.” Zahra shifts to press a kiss against Vex’s forehead. Another. “You are so very, very beautiful. And I’m so very, very glad that you’re still here.”

“Zahra…”

“And your ego is so impossibly large I’m convinced it’s what powers the sun.”

“I wouldn’t leave you.”

“Leave me?” Zahra scoffs. “What would make you think that I was worried?”

Silence follows the question for so long that Zahra wonders if Vex fell back asleep. Listens for the steady breathing, the subtle snoring to resume but instead she catches the shudder in an inhale. When she pulls back, soft light catches on something shining against Vex’s cheek. Red fingers reach up to brush against her skin and they come away wet with tears. 

“Vex’ahlia.” Her tone demands attention and she shifts in the bed so that they’re eye level. “You couldn’t leave me, darling. Would you like to know why?”

Nothing. Then quiet, “Why?”

“Because.”  _ Because to me you’re brighter than the sun _ . The poetics of that fall short on her warrior’s tongue.  _ Because I love you, until the very last sunset in this world _ . Another time, maybe. A time less stained with tears and death. “Because until you say ‘Zahra, I hate you and never want to see you again’, you have me. And I will follow you. Come for you. Through all the Hells and back.”

When Vex doesn’t speak, Zahra places a kiss against the her damp cheek. Wraps her arms around her until she feels the heavy  _ thud _ of their hearts in time. “Had you died, I would’ve bent fate around my fingers to keep you here.” Another kiss, closer to her lips. “I would’ve cursed every god and stood at the Divine Gate itself until they gave you back.” Here, she catches the corner of Vex’s mouth. “I would’ve come for you. You wouldn’t leave me because I will never leave  _ you _ .”

Vex is the one that kisses her first. All it is, is a shifting of her chin to bring their mouths together but Zahra forgets how to breathe. Forgets what she’s supposed to do for a heartbeat until reality kicks in and she returns the pressure to her lips. Vex’s mouth is soft. Gives easy in a way that her calloused palms, the hard lines of her body, don’t. Zahra’s own body is soft. Presses against Vex’ahlia’s with each moment they stay kissing.

There’s no rush to their mouths moving together. It’s slow as the passage of time and Zahra doesn’t need the dawn. Not with the sunrise in her stomach from Vex.  _ I’ll follow you _ . She meant it and now she imagines herself as the sun. As the moon pulled across the sky by the mouth and she rolls. Shifts until she lays on top of Vex and her kiss turns urgent. But she isn’t afraid of the moment ending.  _ I will never leave you _ . How much she meant it should scare her. Should, but her fear is left on the floor.

“Promise?” Vex’s voice is breathy against her mouth. Her steady hands rest against Zahra’s waist.

“I promise,” she replies and kisses a trail to Vex’s jaw. “Even when you’re farthest from me. I’ll be there.”

“Oh?” Zahra doesn’t have to look to know the smile that turns up the corners of her mouth. “How can that be?”

Laughter against her skin. “Don’t make me say it, darling. It’s ridiculously typical.”

“Please? For me? I’m so very, very beautiful after all.” Like that, the tension of Zahra’s dream finally leaves and again she laughs. Kisses down the column of Vex’s throat.

“In your heart, my dear. If you’ll keep me there.”  _ It’s the only place I’ll let myself be kept _ .

“I think I will, love.” Calloused palms cup Zahra’s cheeks and pull her up until their lips can touch again. Once. Twice. There’s no nightmares between them. “I think I will.’


End file.
